


Damaevheim

by Wristic



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Disguise, Emotional Manipulation, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Jotunheim, Kissing, Political Alliances, Touch-Starved, bro's broing it up, of all kinds - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-14
Updated: 2017-12-30
Packaged: 2019-01-17 08:23:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12361572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wristic/pseuds/Wristic
Summary: Your abilities of ice and snow have never entirely been within your control. Skin so cold it freezes anything it touches, you’ve been left alone and craving a connection as any Inhuman would, finding the end of your forced seclusion not from a friend like you always imagined, but an enemy.





	1. Chapter 1

The jet rumbled a little but not enough to cause concern with anyone. What did cause concern was that he hadn’t stopped staring at you. Either you didn’t notice or you were ignoring him, you picked off small bits of rubble that had gotten stuck to your snowy suit. The pieces that dropped to the ground misted in the warm air and held Loki enraptured. Something like you shouldn’t exist here, it showed in the way no one stood by you, and he had so many question.  
  
“Tell me,” you still didn’t look up, still picking away at the debris frozen to you from the fight. “How does a Midgardian come by the ability of ice?”  
  
The moment the element slipped from his lips your eyes jumped to his, rigid as the jet bounced again. “Midgardian?”  
  
“Human.” he smiled.  
  
Your brow furrowed, not looking at anyone else as you went back to cleaning. “By being a punk and messing around in abandoned military outposts.”  
  
“I’m not sure what that means.” he did, but he wanted more. It didn’t help you were an open book. The way you closed yourself off, uncomfortable in your own skin on such a simple question.  
  
“I touched something I shouldn’t have and it rewired my DNA. If you understand what that means.”  
  
Loki calculated his next response, wedging himself further into your discomfort and playing it off like a harmless blurt. “So, you’re not human anymore?”  
  
The look you gave him, the sheer amount of pain manifesting in a defensive glare. The Man of Iron stepping up like he was ready to knock Loki unconscious rather than let him utter another word. This was a fact that tore you to pieces and everyone knew it. It was your weakness.  
  
With a smirk Loki didn’t apologize, locking that wonderful piece of information away. You crouched small and sullen, forcing yourself to smile to calm everyone down. Though Loki's little ego boost didn’t last long. The jet gave a hard jerk as the redhead announced a sudden storm coming. That Thor was coming.  
  
And of course he arrived in the roughest way possible. Yanking Loki from the plane and tossing him to the ground, yelling but begging him to do the impossible. Come home? There was no home that was his. Not in Asgard, not in Jotunheim. He wanted home he’d have to take it, and take it he was determined to do. But in the most hilarious turn and in an instant, mid conversation, Thor was gone. He sailed as the little creatures he was trying to protect fought him for the claim of imprisoning Loki.  
  
In a chuckle Loki went to go watch the show, every intent on being taken back to a headquarters whether Thor wanted to get involved or not. As he reached the edge, a sound like glass cracking snapped in his ears. A seeping chill ripped the breath from his lungs. Mist ghosted his vision as large spikes of pale blue ice sprung up at his toes, edging him back from the possible escape.  
  
“You’re not going anywhere.”  
  
Feeling the cold in his palm and the warmth in the night behind it, it felt like holding the Casket of Ancient Winters. Like if he opened his eyes his hands would be blue and Heimdal would be encased in ice before him. The road shimmering in all its colors, the sound of waves rolling below him. But none of that was there. Only the rocky pinnacle he stood on, a wall of ice before him, and you at his back. Gulping away the unwelcome memory, Loki pulled himself into a half smile as he turned, hands raised as non-threatening as possible.  
  
A path of snow was behind you. A slide meant to be slick not durable, to transport you but not remain long enough to stain the scenery. You’d found the heroic stance you let slip on the jet, and he immediately wanted to see it crumble away all over again. See your nerves opened and bare under his silver tongue.  
  
“It’s very beautiful,” he glanced to the long thick spikes armed for his throat. “An art all it’s own.”  
  
A hardness seeped into your eyes, an adorable attempt at putting up a wall.  
  
His hands came down, one gliding the length of the pillar. It was so clear cut the reflection of his pale fingers glittered along it. Loki looked to his fingertips, feeling a tingling as he wandered toward you. “I doubt many would see it that way. It’s hard to appreciate something so deadly and so… different.”  
  
Looking to you, you were steel gazed, ready for anything. Yet as he continued to step closer, you glanced down at his encroaching proximity, taking a step back as he started to feel the temperature drop. “You are such a fascination…”, he reached to you and you flinched, hard.  
  
“I won’t hurt you.” he reassured, such honesty and openness Loki played in his face.  
  
A crackle seeped into your voice, a magnificent show of vulnerability for him, your enemy. “That’s not what I’m afraid of.”  
  
With an earnest, sympathetic grin, he pushed forward anyway. The air dropped with every inch closer. Yet when his fingers brushed your cheek, it only tingled. A small sensation revealing just how dangerous you were to anyone but a beast bred for such a harsh climate. The tips of his fingers started fading to a deep pale blue to protect him. Loki watched the shift crawl along his skin. The curious effect had him play along your cheek, brush his fingertips behind your ear.  
  
As his hand trailed down your neck he stole a glance expecting to see discomfort. You made his small wonder grow exponentially. Your lips parted in reverence. Eyes wide with bewilderment. Pulse hitting hard under his palm. Loki lifted his thumb and trailed it along your jaw, watching your breath hitch.  
  
A ringing slam from below the mountain startled you out of his reach. Loki snapped his hand back fast to avoid you noticing the true color creeping up his neck.  
  
While he hid his hand, Loki couldn’t help but notice how short your breath was, your eyes dodging frantically. Again it was a wonderful boost to his ego as you fretted with the speaker in your ear, demanding Natasha to hurry up. You couldn’t look at him, your gloves whining as you twisted your fingers. There was war waging in your expression, one that made him wonder what he could get away with on touch alone.  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  
It was quiet these days. After Ultron and the Avengers falling apart, this giant tower was so empty. It still echoed the harshness everyone had done and said to one another.  
  
You held yourself a little tighter, dreaming away into the sunset of orange and yellow above the city. Staring out into the sun you peeled off a thick white and shimmery glove, reaching out into the heat of the light. As you drew closer the window fogged more and more, the sun dimming. A thin pattern of ice formed as your fingers touched the glass.  
  
Before the tips stuck to it, you retracted, watching the sun glitter through the cold spot. The ice and mist began to turn into water, a drip trickling down from the bloom of gold behind it.  
  
“It’s beautiful.”  
  
Startling, you whipped your head around only to find the one of two janitors allowed on the upper levels. Rubis was an older gentlemen always ready to offer you a conversation. Though it took him a long while to learn how to keep his distance from you. Seeing his gentle smile you returned it, playing with the glove instead of putting it back on.  
  
“Also more work for you, I’m sorry.” You took a few steps forward to let him know you were interested in keeping a conversation   
  
“It’s no problem. I like watching the patterns fade away. I take pictures sometimes.” You couldn’t help the flattery, dipping your head and trying to hide your smile. Worry still fell over him, “I-I hope that’s not inappropriate. I know I’m not asking- is it weird of me to do? The crystals are so-”  
  
“Never hurts to be appreciated.” you mumbled.  
  
Rubis was handsome for his older age. He was tall even steps away, black hair peppering grey and pushed back under his hat. Always so clean shaven with sharp features and charming laugh lines in the corners of his green eyes. He smiled in relief and your heart flipped.  
  
The elevator dinged catching you both off-guard. A certain God of Thunder came stomping in with a bright smile and big open arms, calling your name.  
  
“Thor!” one of the very few you’d known could stand you, your body anyway. Rubis took back further in the shadows, being forgotten as you jumped into the old friends arms in a tight hug. “I missed you!”  
  
As you slipped down you noticed the trail of frost you were leaving on his Earth clothes. Yanking your hand back with an embarrassed, “Sorry.” you fiddled with slipping the glove back on, already missing the feel of heat under your palm.  
  
“It’s nothing.” he chuckled, not bothering to acknowledge it. One of the many things you loved about him.  
  
Shyly spinning your toe into the floor, you offered a deal. “I don’t know if you have the time, but I could make you a drink and you can tell me what brings you to this lonely little corner of the galaxy.”  
  
His eyes fell a little, his smile looking strained. Clearly someone told Thor what happened if the joke didn’t go by him, Jane assuming. Instead of asking he nodded, “I’d like that.”  
  
You always cherished his company above all others. His hide was thicker than anyone from Earth, letting you sit in the seat next to him. He didn't shiver till his teeth chattered, didn't hesitate to pat your back as he laughed. You got that it still stung when his skin touched yours directly but he could hide it well. It had been so long since you were normal. Since anyone touched you without their skin burning a charred black, ice climbing up on it’s own to kill more flesh. So long since you could feel the heat as their thigh brush yours. Since you could almost taste the drink on their breath as they leaned close to whisper fake secrets.  
  
You did your best to keep yourself at tipsy. Alcohol had a hard time dissolving in your cold blood, but Thor was having no issue in throwing back the drinks. You two talked about the first time you teamed up. You talked about your own personal quest to find more about the Inhuman’s. How you met with not so dead Phil Coulson and a woman like you named Daisy but her ability was to shake the earth. Thor talked of a place called Jotunheim. How you could be a Queen there. How you could make the desolate wasteland into something magnificent with your abilities.  
  
You didn’t even know how late in the night it was, not caring either as you almost laughed out of your seat. Thor kept you from falling, laughing as you both caught your breath. In heavy gasps your eyes met and a long pause filled the balcony room.  
  
“I should go.” He abruptly announced.  
  
You perked up, “Oh no no! Tony made a room for you here if you’re tired!”  
  
He chuckled, lifting from his seat, “No, I’d best return to Jane. She knows I have a lot of catching up to do but I don’t want to spend too much time away. I only have so much.”  
  
“Right.” you whispered, trying hard to keep your gloom back.  
  
A hand fell on your shoulder with a reassuring squeeze, “They’ll come back around. We’re stronger together, they have to see that.”  
  
You nodded, a small bit of relief he mistook his leave for a more generalized loneliness. Saying your goodbyes you hung around the door, his scent lingering and taunting you in the sudden quiet. It may be years before you’d get that heat again, the connection from one person to the next.  
  
“It’s funny how desperate we can get when we find ourselves alone.” You spun around, shocked to find Rubis at the bar, downing your unfinished drink. You thought he left  _long_ ago. Was he in the room the whole time? Pulling back the glass, he set it down with a chuckle aimed at you. “It’s also adorable how weak your tolerance is.”  
  
You took a ready stance against the sinister aura dripping off him. He always seemed so nice.  
  
As he walked to you, boots sounding heavy in the thick air, a glimmer took over his form. Average beige janitorial clothes turned extravagant and elegant. Gold armor, black leather and green silk shaped him for royalty. Youth began glowing in his face, hair turning jet black and stretching down to his shoulders.  
  
Before you stood Loki, God of Mischief, so confident this wouldn’t end with him in a cage.  
  
“What did you do with Rubis?” you gritted.  
  
He gestured to himself, “Right here, all along. You didn’t think a man could have that clean of a record did you?”  
  
Reeling back in disgust, for a man who dreamed of being a king, a part of you did relent he held himself well enough. Loki summoned that presence like second nature, tricking you into feeling like you didn’t have the option to fight. It was a wonder why you hadn’t flung him across the room already.  
  
He didn't stop walking toward you until you backed up in fear of your own skin. You made the mistake once, never again. Loki smiled, taking your hand. “You don’t deserve to be so lonely, pinning for the affection of people who can’t see you or stand by you.”  
  
You went to refute when the glove started sliding off. You looked down at him revealing your arm, letting the invented cloth drop to the floor. Again you tried to fight your desperate want for touch, tried to open your mouth to argue him. 

The moment he ran his bare fingers down the underside of your forearm, you were lost. You gulped watching his skin reveal itself a dark blue as his fingers turned your hand over. Looking up you worried there would be agony in his features, that your touch was killing him. But like before, he only met your eyes, tilting his head in your wonderment.   
  
Loki loomed closer, his presence pressing you back into the wall. His fingers near tickling your hand pulled up dread of the consequences if you fought him off. He’d leave. He’d stop touching you. All those years, only the smallest of contact from Thor where Loki here and now touched you like he craved to.   
  
As your sigh ghosted around his, his eyes dropped to your lips. Your shock turned to patience, waiting for him to close the distance. Gulping nervously he gave your hand a squeeze, a reminder this affection wouldn’t end in pain.   
  
The kiss was so gentle, so aware of your inexperience and chastity brought on by your ability. It sent warmth flooding your veins. You always imagined it would matter who it came from, but goosebumps still rose feeling his lips softly brush along yours before taking you again. All thoughts of fighting were gone from you as he pulled back a fraction. Breaking the kiss and testing to see if you wanted him to continue. You did, terribly and wrongfully you never wanted him to leave.   
  
Pulling back, he stiffened as your eyelids raised.   
  
You’d seen your fair share of strange things, you were a strange thing yourself. Only you hadn’t been expecting to be looking into pools of deep dark red, red as blood, surrounded in a blue that made you think of mountains after sundown. Loki's eyes held into yours with a sort of disappointed expectancy. Black pupils looked down to his hand in yours, pulling his palm open to see his own shade. It occurred to you the shift may have been involuntary much like your frost. You caught him smiling though it didn't reach his eyes. There was resentment instead, and he nearly pulled back from you entirely.

Your hand quickly came up. You meant to take his cheek but flinched at the bare contact. After your heart released its instinctual panic you ran your fingers along his soft and now oddly cold skin. Your hesitance to let him go was not calculated if his face was anything to go by. There was pain and mistrust in his features, rigid as he thought on what you must be thinking. Experimentally you nestled your hand in his pitch black hair. As you petted it back it stayed soft between your fingers, not clumping in thick strands by the frost that was suppose to claim it. A small chuckle released from you, fascinated with the sensation, it having been gone from you since you were a child.

A wall knocked down in him that unleashed something savage and raw. He smiled back but cupped your face with both hands before locking you into a devouring kiss. It was needy and possessive, overwhelming but you loved it. The way his hands roamed and stirred in a heat that had you shivering. Loki searched out the notches in your clothes, clawing at your bare skin. You keened into the demand, squirming with how sensitive your skin was.   
  
He had you on your tiptoes with his passion, arms wrapped tightly around you, hand fisted in your hair. Loki hesitated leaving your taste to speak against your lips. “You could come with me. I could make you a queen, it doesn’t have to be some fantasy.”   
  
The offer of titles, riches, power, meant nothing compared to his skin touching yours. His breath on your lips. Your hands on him as you pulled him into one last savoring kiss, terrified it would be the last.   
  
“You could always have this.” he hushed as it broke.   
  
You couldn’t answer, your breath hitching as the temptation to say yes pulled up your chest. He looked so strange yet seductive in all his blue. Cold and dark, but beautiful. The green and golds didn’t fit him in the least with such shades. You wanted to see him in white like you wore, you thought he’d look best against snow white.   
  
When he pulled back from you your fingers slid down his arms, curling in his hands. Backing away Loki let you hold onto him, gaze assuredly into his teasing yet reassuring face. You couldn’t think straight. The euphoria and alcohol cutting off thought, leaving only the impending loneliness once you let go.   
  
A shimmering green tear split in the bare room before him. It only barely cracked open enough to show the other side was blurred and dark. He was really asking you to walk into the abyss with him.   
  
“Last chance.” His fingers wiggled in yours.   
  
You shouldn’t. You shouldn’t of let him even get this far. His promise taunted you. Years, decades might go by before you could have someone again, _perhaps never again_. Yet Loki of all people stood before you, holding you so easily.   
  
With a squeeze of his hand you stepped forward to his side. You were going to regret this later.   



	2. Chapter 2

How was it possible to crave the cold? To burn in panic at the sudden loss of it? Thor tried not to pace, his fingers instead itching as Tony explained his system was tampered with. One minute you were there and the next all of FRIDAY went silent for five minutes. The slightest hint of a body appearing in the room before it shorted out and everything went black.  
  
The worst part was the sight of you lingering by the door after it shut. Your hand ran down the door as your head dipped sullenly. A part of Thor wanted to stay, feeling how lonely you’d become even if you wouldn’t admit it aloud. But he never quite trusted himself around you for long. Your company was so easy to be in, certain temptations always edging on his mind, edging dangerously with the drinks.  
  
Some radio residue was left in the center of the room, nothing recognized as earthly, but Thor knew it well. The kind of energy needed for folding the universe for a brief moment, something that would need to take months in preparation, longer if done alone. Thor tensed all over, his teeth aching as his jaw clenched tight. Stepping back from the computer screens he reassured Tony, “She isn’t on Earth anymore.”  
  
He began walking away when Tony jumped up, following close behind, “What do you mean ‘she isn’t on Earth’ anymore? Where is she?” Thor only sighed but didn’t stop, taking great pains to force back his denial. “Hey!” Tony grabbed his arm and yanked Thor to face him. “Where are you going? Where is she?”  
  
“I have to go to Asgard.” The frustration of it all bubbled out in a bitter laugh. “The only other person to know about her and have that kind of magic… was Loki.”  
  
Tony took back. “Loki?” Thor nodded, unable to look at him, feeling so much shame it hurt. “What would Loki want with her? I know he was a little fascinated and tried to mind control her to his side a couple times but, I mean, I feel like he could find someone similar when the literal galaxy is open to him.”  
  
“I don’t know if it had anything to do with her powers.” Thor mumbled. In a sudden switch he clapped a hand on Tony’s shoulder, brushing aside the deeply confused and concerned look, “I’ll find her. I’ll bring her home. I swear it.”  
  
Tony was growing annoyed with the refusal to explain anything further, grinding his teeth before looking back at his system that failed to protect you in the first place. A hard determination filled his eyes before looking back, “I’m coming with you.”  
  
Lurching his hand back, Thor stared appalled. “Absolutely not.”  
  
“This is my fault-”  
  
“It really isn’t-”  
  
“I’m not just going to sit here while she’s out in the galaxy with your maniac brother!” It was hard not to see the guilt and blame in Tony, knowing his equipment failed not just him but you when this was supposed to be the safest place in the world. Then again it was also hard not to see the trouble he’d be in bringing Tony.  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  
Closing your eyes and walking through, it was like stepping into a cave. At first you thought you had until you looked up. The room was pitch black but far above your head was a perfect circle for the sky, stars twinkling in a globe. When a light came, a ball of pure white glowing from Loki’s hand, he smiled to you in revealing a dome room of metal, the walls etched with large circles overlapping and craved in ruins. It was almost sad with it’s forgotten condition, the metal rusted and cracked, caked in a layer of ice yet a bit glossy now, like it had been blasted with heat. Below your feet was a raised platform, eight deep gutter lines reached out from under it, steaming though nothing was in them.  
  
Loki stepped closer to you, “Do me a favor? Lift us through that hole in the ceiling would you?”  
  
Looking between him and the ceiling, it appeared the most sensible thing to do with the only exit in front of you caved in. Reluctantly, you let go of him to crouched down. Most of the ice you created was pulled from the air, but strangely you felt a surge jump up your arms as you reached for the cold. Nothing was created, but you felt ice stretch far beyond you, feeling almost eager to be used on your call. There was just so much of it.  
  
“Something wrong?”  
  
You looked up at him, a quirk to his lips he failed to hide. “N-no.”  
  
Focusing, a pillar started springing from below your feet, slow at first, gradually growing faster to not unstable his balance. The pillar grew high, far higher than you intended and the winds were harsh outside the dome. A thin but strong clear layer of ice sprouted up to protect you and him from being pushed off before you lifted your hands. It was all so easy, so effortless on your endurance, in fact you felt energized. You didn’t tell him any of that, instead tried to hold back the unease. Loki seemed to get it anyway, looking from your hands you were busy examining and smiling a bit wider when you caught his eye. You gave him a stubborn grump face before looking out.  
  
The world was stuck in midnight, no sun and no moon above a sky blanketed in stars, clouds of cosmic dust painting it purples and blues. The mountains that encased the area were so large and so tall they disappeared in black grey clouds, silhouetted giants the winds withered away the snow from. There were no trees, no animals, but below, the pillar stood in the dead center of ruins stretching far and wide.  
  
It was clear to you a battle had visited the once capital city. Blasted gaping holes in buildings, the things inside left in their final place, forgotten by fleeing citizens. Littered were glowing blue stones helping you discern it all between toppled towers and demolished arches. You wondered if they’d been street lamps once, and tried to imagine the city when it was vibrant and alive. Mystical as it seemed to only glitter with a small layer of ice, the snow stopping at its borders by seemingly nothing.  
  
Bewildered and bewitched, you whispered, “What is this place?”  
  
“A world you’ve heard so often, yet never taken to.” His hand raised to you, brushing along your jaw for your attention. You responded instantly to the feather touch, looking to him as he announced, “Jotunheim.”  
  
You watched as his skin darkened under contact with you, dragging your eyes away to the city again. “What happened?”  
  
“They once had their own form of civilization, at least had started creating a stable environment for themselves. Ah, but old traditions, how hard they die.” He didn’t take his eyes off you, looking into yours that were so distracted on the silent and broken kingdom. “Frost Giants are war-bound creatures, valuing their strength and itching to use it, to prove themselves and conquer all others weaker than them. They threw their chance to the wind. As they lost their impossible war they abandoned their progress, feeling the pleasures of life is what made them weak, retreating back into the caves and mountains.”  
  
Pulling close to him, staring off feeling like you’d catch ghosts between the alleys, Loki whispered down to you. “I want you to remake it.”  
  
Taken back, he chuckled at you, white teeth between cold blue lips and teasing red eyes, “No one is here but you and me. This history is loathed among them. Take it, create something only _you_ can.”  
  
Feeling overwhelmed by the request you stepped back and fiddled, “I-I’m not strong enough to make a city, I don’t even know how that would really work I-”  
  
“Have you ever tried?” Of course you hadn’t. Even if you wanted to, it would only panic everyone, the true extent of your abilities left uncharted for their comfort. But even still, could you really? Loki took your lowered chin, pulling it up to face him from your doubt. “Try.”  
  
Ironically a shiver ran down your spine. Finding some stability, you sighed and crouched down again, both hands on the platform. Again it was like a jolt of electricity, gluing your hands and taunting you to covered the world in an unending glacier of ice. Instead you drew up the already set layout, the forgotten marks not quite withered away, shocking yourself with how far your reach could spread.  
  
Your abilities were only limited by your imagination now, pulling up on the chill around and below you, feeling it crawl high like a swarm, lifting the stones in their place, using the ice to crystallize into a finished smooth layer.    
  
  
Loki watched it all from up high, like a garden flourishing, molding into something of dreams. The city shimmered and glowed anew as building crawled to a stand, bridges connecting the higher layers. He stepped forward as a massive tower in the distance began to crack and burst. It reshaped like a flower blooming, vines spinning and encasing it, the thin veins spreading wide in a clear layer to form a bubbled cone. Loki couldn’t help but smile. It seemed you were thinking of the future, perhaps already claiming a castle for yourself. Looking to you, a blizzard orb began swirling around you, streaks of blue lightning cracking from your hands and brewing a storm in the pedestal you and him stood on.  
  
As the glowing stones began brightening the city the pedestal began to lower. It melted away back into Jotunheim's abandoned and barely working Bifrost. Inside glowed a pale blue with the stones decorating the platform in a spinning mosaic. The ice was gone from the rusted metal and the exit remade and devoid of rubble, the doors wide open. A thin layer of glistening ice kept them all together in an effort to show the design once carved into it a thousand years ago.     
  
In a release of breath at the magnificent power displayed, Loki looked back in time to see you stumble to stand. Quickly he caught you, nitrogen mist steaming from your beautiful skin and spilling from your lips. Your pupils were wide and glowing white as you looked up to him, “That was amazing.” You sighed into a smile tainted in bliss.    
  
Loki chuckled at that, his voice bouncing off the clean and lit dome. Your smoking hand came up and caressed his cheek, making him still a moment as his skin changed to it’s darker hues. There was such adoration in your eyes as you whispered, “You are so beautiful.”  
  
His smile faded as your white stare gazed into his red eyes. Loki tilted his head curiously. Seeing how your mind was as clouded as the fog bellowing from you, he wondered how he really looked to you. Using his free hand, no longer needing to create a light, he lifted your legs and carried you away into your city. You were going to need your mind for when the residence of this cold planet caught wind of your creation from their abandoned and forbidden lands.  
  


* * *

 

  
The Bifrost came to its final flash of light. In one last blink there stood Thor and Iron Man at it’s gates. Ripping his helmet off, Tony had both eyes blown wide open. Thor and Heimdall let him spin himself dizzy taking the golden dome in with nothing but space beyond it. The second his mouth finally opened, it didn’t stop. “How does this all work? This can’t be the whole structure to teleport across the universe. What kind of energy does it use? Who built it? You guys live for some thousand odd years right, they still alive? Can I talk to them-they still got schematics-c-can I see those schematics?”    
  
At first Thor looked around confused, exchanging that look with Heimdall. Completely straight faced, he chimed, “It’s magic.”    
  
Tony gave a mock laugh. “Okay, but: all those questions.”    
  
Thor shrugged. “It’s magic. What else could it be?” They stared each other down as Thor walked by him, breaking into a cheeky smile.    
  
As he reached the door Heimdall spoke. “You should know. While Loki has his ways of hiding from my vision… there is an awfully beautiful city reborn on Jotunheim.”    
  
Thor and Tony shared a look of concern but Heimdall only smiled. Stepping to him Thor asked in wonder, “Overnight?”    
  
Heimdall nodded. “Been a long time since Jotunheim bore a light in it’s darkness.”    
  
While the news should have been uplifting, Thor sped off. Or tried to.    
  
Tony went to chase him down, but his coming interrogation stopped short as he came face to face with a magnificent golden city, glowing like a beacon against the night surrounding. The wind knocked out of him. Eyes finding the walkway, Tony tapped his toe onto the crystal bridge. It was ever-shifting in a rainbow of colors, rushing to the Bifrost like it was siphoning power from the city. With no rails, he tiptoed near the edge, finding an ocean below. Yet at the edge of the ocean it rolled and waved over an edge into the abyss. 

Cooling his panic when he realized he was missing an extra set of steps, Thor turned back to see Tony’s wonder.    
  
Snapping back when Thor drew close enough, Tony asked sounding more offended than in need of clarification. “Flat. Flat? Your world is flat?”    
  
Thor couldn’t resist. “Earth isn’t?”    
  
“We have both flown around it many times!!”    
  
Pointing and leading his finger around the perimeter of Asgard he agreed, “Yes, in a biiiig circle.”    
  
“No! _No_! In a _Sphere_! In-in-in a-how are we even standing here!? We should be getting crushed by gravity standing so close to the edge… unless… is… is this man made? Is this a man-made city in space?”    
  
Chuckling at his friends hysterics, Thor grabbed Tony's shoulders and lead him back to the center of the bridge. “We’ve a friend to find, and there is a library that can answer your questions better than I can. With certain restrictions of course.”    
  
“Oh of course, wouldn’t want humans traveling the galaxy and making their own space cities.”    
  
About halfway down the long walk Tony broke his wonder to ask. “I know your brother is crazier than a bag of cats but, you wouldn’t have the faintest idea of why he took Coldsnap would you? Building a city on Jotunheim? I thought he hated the place. Didn’t he kill the king there or something?”    
  
Thor gave a half smile to the nickname. But remembering your name, remembering you were in estranged danger with his brother wiped it away. “No one can ever claim to know what Loki thinks. I’m sure it’s a complicated plan. Building a whole city… she wasn’t powerful enough to do that on Earth was she?”    
  
“No. I would think the excursion would kill her before getting anywhere near a city. But it's possible the change in environment takes a lot of the resistance off her.”    
  
Thor shook his head, thoughts of the worst already tormenting him. “It’s a wonder what Loki could convince or gamble with the Frost Giants in exchange for someone who can reshape their world.”    
  
“Okay, hang on.” Tony held out a hand to stop the rush to the capital. Pointing back he asked, “Didn’t Prince of the Forest back there just say where she is? Why are we not going there now?”    
  
Shifting with embarrassment, Thor rambled. “There was this whole thing with, me trying to start a war and then, as you said, my brother betraying and killing their King. So we must get there as soon but as undetected as possible. Lest, you know, war.” Sighing in frustration he added his own hope. “Y/n is stronger than she looks. I have no doubt she can stand her own against Loki or the Frost Giants.”    
  
Getting a suspicious stare down from Tony threw him off. “What?”    
  
He was hesitant, sucking in a sharp breath before forcing out his concern. “So… what is between you and Y/n exactly?”    
  
Thor was shocked into a small mumble. “What? Nothing-”    
  
“Please. With me it was, ‘Hello Tony nice to see you again’. With her it was ‘how about I stay seven hours for a drink.”    
  
Desperate to avoid the conversation he teased. “You jealous?”    
  
“Hurt,” Tony guilt-tripped in return. “A little hurt is what I was. I wouldn’t have minded being invited to a hangout, being in the same exact building and all.” Thor chuckled, but his stomach was still knotting. “You can’t tell me you didn’t get in some trouble for that. Stumbling in at two in the morning smelling of booze and another woman? If I did that to Pepper I would be greeted home with that really pleasant, ‘There better be a good reason or I’m going to murder you’ smile.”    
  
The tone was making his hair stand on end, the thinly veiled accusation an insult, “I am faithful to Jane.”    
  
“I don’t doubt it. I’m just saying what it looks like, and what it looks like, is probably what it looks like to Jane also.”    
  
Thor stepped forward bristling with offence. “And what does it look like, exactly? Say it plain.”    
  
Instead of backing down, a scoff escaped Tony. “Do I have to say anything?”    
  
Thor wanted to stay angry, keep defending himself and his honor. But what was there to defend when actions always spoke louder than words? Instead his mind strayed, worried what Jane really thought when he came home last night only to leave. Sighing, he shot Tony a terse look before turning and walking on.    
  



	3. Chapter 3

Loki couldn’t stop staring into his hand. He sat in the shadows of your icy and glittering tower, filled with few and sparse things he imported from an old hideout. Even in the darkness he could see his pale almost ghostly complexion. It was hard for him not to think if it were blue, he would blend right in, disappear in the ice and stone like his true lineage evolved to do. But he couldn’t will it to come, too set in old fears and denials. Frost Giants, terrorists of Asgard, barbarians born of a cold hell climate. No one of his adoptive world, and as it seemed of his birth world would have seen the shifting as a cherished thing. Yet in your naivety you sought a sort of kinship with it.    
  
Glancing to you, sleeping in a bed ironically big enough to fit a giant, he scoffed. What would your reaction be when coming face to face with a real Frost Giant? Would you think the colors so beautiful anymore?    
  
You began to stir, pushing the blankets down like you were too hot. Lifting your hand you began rubbing your eyes. Loki took that as a queue to come to you, sit beside you. Brushing a gentle hand down your neck he helped you wake. A soft grin came to him watching you tense and relax into the touch. “How are you feeling?”    
  
“Dizzy.” Your eyes lazily fluttered open. He liked the way you looked at him when he could do things no one else ever had, the way you worshiped him for it. It was enough to make him want to lavish you in a stream of unending gifts, take you to far off places, give you everything your heart desired if only you looked at him with that same reverence every second of everyday.    
  
Reaching out, you were hesitant at first before running your fingers through his raven hair. Marvel glittering in your eyes, delicately you let every strand sift through your fingers. The action was so intimate it was hard not to play on, to cave under your needs. Leaning toward you, Loki waited a moment as your face dropped in apprehension. But as he continued to your lips, taking a slow kiss, you didn’t stop him. Your fingers pet through his hair one last time before timidly holding him to you.    
  
It was like you’d forgotten how close you could get, stepping back to a reserve you were dangerous to him. With a smile he scooted his body closer to yours, running his hand up your side to cup your cheek. Yet that didn’t seem to ease you, feeling stiff and finding it hard to look at him. With a bitter smile, he watched his dark thumb caress your cheek. “Are you just now remembering I’m the bad guy?”    
  
Taking a strangled sigh you admitted, glancing around at the dome tower you created. “I _am_ feeling more sober...”    
  
Refusing to remove himself, to let up his contact or comfort you with a more familiar appearance, Loki tilted his head and asked, red eyes seeming to glow against the blue light. “And how does sober you feel about all this?”    
  
Sliding out from under him, you sat up and looked around. Your features hardened with conviction. “I don’t regret coming here and making this.”    
  
Spinning a finger in the silken sheet bunched on your thigh, he asked “You regret being with me?” Watching you, he couldn’t tell if it was anger or pain that filled you. In need of a real answer, he pushed even if it would hurt. “Regret that it was me to take you here? To touch you so… carnally?”      
  
Your look to him was chiding, like he was only teasing you. Loki shrugged. “Do you regret me touching you?”    
  
The look fell away from him. “No.”    
  
“No?”    
  
With a slow touch, you took his hand into yours, letting the connection rest in your lap. Your thumb trained along his as you shook your head. In one word you echoed all your pent up loneliness inside, “No.”    
  
Loki savored this quiet moment from you. So exposed, so willing and malleable to him. Such a creature of limitless power, turned weak under his slightest touch. Sitting up he pulled your face to him. You ran a hand down his chest and played with the armor inlaid with leather. He whispered your name, getting your attention enough to look him in the eyes. There was shame in you, frustration for your own hunger that had you caving to his company without a fight. But he smiled to the song of your desperation.    
  
That song suddenly turned into a very real long guttural roar of a beast that near shattered the walls. While you tensed like a brick, Loki pondered aloud, “Well that seems a bit excessive.”    
  
“What seems a bit excessive!? What was that!?” You shrieked before it came again.    
  
“The locals. I figured they’d come around sooner or later, I just didn’t think with a pet.”    
  
You jumped up out of the bed, rushing to the window and pushing the large glass doors open. The wind whipped in, taking you a moment to adjust your eyes and gasp. Loki came up behind you to see a familiar large lumbering beast with horns, bouncing and scuffling the edge of your city in anticipation. Beside it was a dozen or so Frost Giants, all still and bathed in the darkness, only the glow of the city to reveal their shape. Putting his hands on your shoulders, he asked with a smirk, “Ready to make some friends?”   
  


  
The nerves were impossible to keep at bay. Loki had recommended simply making a bridge to them as a show of power, but the idea of yourself being the power display was always unnerving. You weren’t here to make any sort of take over, to subjugate people below you. If they asked you to leave, you would. 

Walking through the empty winter wonderland, glittering against the glow stones, a weight set in your heart. You didn’t want to leave. It already felt so much like home, like the second your DNA rewired you were fated to be here. But Loki had emphasized so much on them being a war bound people, surely they would see the city as a challenge to their way of life. Surely they’d tear it down.

Reaching the edge, the line of the city became more apparent, the snow falling harder past an invisible barrier. And the Giants became more Giant, the silhouettes doing their height little justice when even passes from them, you were looking up at a hard angle. The beast that had called was as big as a three story building, standing behind them and glaring her down with large red eyes, its hide like stone and teeth looking big and blunt enough to crush boulders.

Instinctively you put yourself in a strong stance when you only wanted to hold yourself. As you stepped forward you noticed Loki kept one foot behind you, like you were the leader in this. Likewise the Giants Leader stepped forward alone. On the walk Loki whispered in your ear, “Oh, did I forget to mention these abandoned lands were also forbidden?”

You gaped at him in shock, “ _ Forbidden _ ?” You whispered, appalled he would keep that from you. Though relented because you really should have expected that from him. Stopping in front of the Frost Giant looked comical with you being so small in comparison. His deep voice and hard red glare rattled you to the core.

“You think to claim these sacred lands for yourself, for the Betrayer and Kinslayer?”

You turned and smacked Loki’s shoulder, hissing quietly, “ _ Sacred _ ?!”

Seemingly, you had caught him off guard, Loki looking to you in his own shock before he spoke to the Giants. “We didn’t know they were sacred. They hadn’t been touched in a thousand years-”

“The ruins of Utgard are a reminder of what we lost.” A somber air came with the reveal, both Loki and you taken back. “Of the hundreds of thousands slaughtered while we were driven to hide in the caves. Where the Asgardians prefer to keep us over acknowledging we were once a force equal to them. The destruction of Utgard is a warning of the dangers rebuilding could attract.”

You glanced to Loki finding him lost, brow furrowed and frown deep before looking to you and stifling it away.

“Yet you rebuilt it anyway, changed it for yourself-” You tried to stop him and explain yourself, but he grew agitated, “Ignorant in the dangers you draw to us. Should the Allfather see light on Jotunheim again he will bring his armies and we, unprepared and shattered across the wastes will be exterminated-!”

“I didn’t change it!” You called out. The Giant tilted his head. “Well, I admit I added some things. But everything it was before, the layout, the decorations carved into the walls and streets, I saved everything I could. It was a beautiful place once and I didn’t want to take that away. I can take away what I added, the frivolous details, but it should be like it was a thousand years ago.”

The winds whipped in the silence between them. There was a hint of sadness in the Giants voice as he insisted quietly, “You shouldn’t have touched it in the first place.”

“You’re right. Forgive me. I come from a secluded planet-” You felt Loki touch your arm, mumbling something about slowing down, “We’ve only just began exploring other worlds, I thought maybe the whole place was abandoned by war and I was free to test my abilities. I won’t do it again, I’ll leave if that’s what you want.”

Loki coughed awkwardly, getting a glare from the Leader before the Giant asked. “Abilities?”

You had meant to make a simple display, two pillars at the mouth of the city. But the image of a real gated fortress took its place at the last minute and the land catered to the split whim. Thick sheets sprung up all around, gnarled and curling thorns melting and blooming into decorations on the walls and before the ceiling could close, you stopped. You and the Frost Giants held the same expression of fear and wonder, the stars staring down from behind the extravagant new building created in moments.

Learning to use your abilities on Earth took so much energy to create the smallest barrier, here it was excess you didn’t know how to pull it back. The power both frightened and enticed you.

The leader mumbled but it didn’t translate. Looking to Loki, a wicked smirk was forming as he informed you, “Damaevheim, means Lady of the Land.” Giving him a curious tilt he helped further explain in your ear, “Congratulations, I think you’ve just been herald a Goddess.” 

Yet the Leader didn’t waver or bow, he looked down to you in suspicion. His warriors took an uneasy step as he reached out to you, cupping your face in his massive hand. “You said you do not hale from Jotunheim or Asgard, where are you from?”

You tried to glance at Loki who was uncharacteristically quiet. “I’ve been called a Midgardian, actually.”

“Manheim.” He nodded. Letting you go his gaze became distracted by the city below. All he had to do was gesture with his chin to his warriors, and they began to walk past you, bizarrely quiet in the snow and down the steps.

Watching them, you went to go ask Loki if you should follow, but he was far off, brow crinkled as he looked into the ground. You called for him but got nothing. Gripping his shoulder you slowly got him to look at you. “Are you alright?”

He hissed in a sharp breath, trying to force away his concern by trying to smile and usher you into the ruins. You stopped him with a hand on his cheek, changing his skin and he could feel it. As his human appearance blended away, he sighed, the pain returning all over again. When he opened his mouth Loki seemed to fight with himself before whispering, “You can’t trust them.”

It took you back, looking to the city where the Jotun had split up and wandered aimlessly in wonder. The beast itself was skirting the edge, following its master at a distance, huffing in anticipation but ultimately had forgotten you and Loki.

“They seemed really reasonable to me. They just want their home back.” 

Loki cringed away from your reach. Catching his bearings, he came back with certainty. “They are barbarians to the core. They will come for Asgard and Midgard and all the other worlds as soon as they gain the strength to do so.” You went to argue but he pulled in close, “They are tools. Nothing more. You must keep them on a short leash or they-”

Repulsed, you stepped back. “Is that what this is? You brought me here as a bid to take over another planet?” Loki rolled his eyes before rubbing away at his forehead. “Wow, and here I was tempted to believe you’d learned some sort of lesson. I didn’t come with you to conquer anyone.”

When he grabbed your shoulders, pleading with you, “ _Listen to me_.”, your heart sped at how real his fear looked. Doubt was a given, but for the sake of curiosity you remained silent and shuffled away your anger. “This isn’t about being a virtuous and gentle leader. Now this is about using your power to protect the rest of the galaxy. They will come to respect your strength, and they will want to use you to bring them back to the Empire they were before.”

Slowly breathing in the crisp air, you leveled with him. “I know I’m new to traveling the galaxy, but I don’t want to assume anything. We’ll just take this slow-”

“Just take things as they come?” He scoffed.

“Yeah.” You blatantly agreed.

His jaw clenched at your jab, speaking with foreboding in his tone. “By then it might be too late.”

Looking to the city, the beast had found a large pit in the ground you ultimately held little interest before. There the beast crawled in, spinning around like a giant stone dog before resting its head on the rim, giving one last huff and shutting its eyes. “... well then I guess it’s good I have you then.” Loki mimicked the exhausted huff before you took his hand and began leading him in. “Come on, give my way a chance. I have a feeling Earth experiences these things a lot faster, and as an Earther, ‘ _ history is written by the victors’ _ is a warning things may have been exaggerated or silenced to demonize an enemy.” 

Relaxing and scuffling in a pout behind you he quipped, “I’m sure ‘ _ luck favors the prepared’ _ is also a saying. Can you guess what that one means?”

You chuckled. “Lets see what they have to say about it at least.”

**Author's Note:**

> This was just an elaboration to [a prompt](https://wristic.tumblr.com/post/165479767869/loki-if-you-write-for-him-at-all-coming) but tell me how it's going as it's own little story!


End file.
